Japanese Air Self-Defense Force copilot Ryutaro Hamahira scans the ocean aboard a C130 aircraft while it flies over the southern search area in the southeastern Indian Ocean, 200 to 300 kilometers (124 to 186 miles) south of Sumatra, Indonesia, Friday, March 21, 2014. Search planes scoured a remote patch of the Indian Ocean but came back empty-handed Friday after looking for any sign of the missing Malaysia Airlines jet, another disappointing day in one of the world’s biggest aviation mysteries. (AP Photo/Koji Ueda)

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysia asked the United States to supply undersea surveillance equipment Friday to search for a missing Malaysia Airlines jet, as lighter weekend winds promised to settle the roiled seas in the remote search area in the southern Indian Ocean.

Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein asked for the additional U.S. equipment in a telephone conversation with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. The Pentagon did not say whether it would grant Hishammuddin’s request, but a spokesman said the United States was committed to funding its share of the search for several more weeks.

“As of now, we’ve set aside $4 million to aid in the search,” said Army Col. Steve Warren. “Based on our current expenditures, we expect these funds will last until sometime in the beginning of April.”

If evidence of the missing plane is not found by then, there is doubt that it ever will be located. If it crashed into the ocean west of Australia, as officials believe, any debris floating on the surface a month after its March 8 disappearance could be hundreds of miles from where the plane went down.

“The last report I have is that nothing of particular significance has been identified in the search today, but the work will continue,” said Warren Truss, Australia’s acting prime minister while Prime Minister Tony Abbott visits Papua New Guinea.

Grainy satellite images captured Sunday and published by Australia on Thursday showed two large objects bobbing in the ocean about 1,500 miles southwest of Perth. Officials called these images the most credible lead yet in the investigation. But there is no guarantee that the objects, around 80 and 15 feet long, have not sunk by now.

“Something that was floating on the sea that long ago may no longer be floating,” Truss said in Perth, according to the Reuters news agency. “It may have slipped to the bottom.”

After being buffeted by high winds and rolling seas Thursday, searchers in aircraft and ships welcomed a forecast of lighter winds and a quieter ocean Saturday. The prediction was for the wind to drop to about 7 mph and the waves to decline in size to about eight feet. The forecast for Sunday turns sour again.

Already an international effort, the search drew additional resources Friday. China, which had 150 citizens among the 239 people aboard the Beijing-bound flight, said two of its aircraft would arrive in Australia on Saturday and that several Chinese ships were steaming toward the region. Japan said two of its planes would arrive Sunday.

Three Australian P-3 Orion surveillance planes and a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon were joined Friday by a long-range corporate jet with trained spotters at the windows, said John Young of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

The hunt for the missing airliner has focused on one of the most desolate corners of the planet, an area of ocean known as the Roaring Forties because its location near 40 degrees south latitude is frequently swept by huge swells and buffeted by strong winds.

“It’s about the most inaccessible spot that you could imagine on the face of the Earth,” Abbott told reporters in Papua New Guinea. “But if there is anything down there, we will find it.”

A newly disclosed transcript of the conversation between the cockpit crew and air-traffic controllers from the time the plane rolled onto the runway in Kuala Lumpur until the co-pilot’s final “good night” more than 42 minutes later revealed nothing out of the ordinary.

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